


Essence of War: UC 0098

by Tempesta_Tricolor



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Gen, Gundams, M/M, Space Battles, a lot of people die, gundam au, not quite a universal war
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-25 20:40:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14985176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tempesta_Tricolor/pseuds/Tempesta_Tricolor
Summary: Two years have passed since the Laplace Conflict. The colonies are banding together and allying with the Earth Federation. All seems peaceful until the Galra emerge to stir up trouble and give way to another Zeonic uprising, plunging the star system into a time of war once again. While the three factions battle for supremacy, the Voltron Alliance is at work to return the system to it's time of peace.





	Essence of War: UC 0098

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Gundam AU taking place after Unicorn. Everything else after in Gundam's universal century never happen. Instead, the Galra are the catalyst to conflict as the emperor attempts to gain control over the whole of the solar system. There will be shipping but they won't be the main focus.

Today just isn't his day. Running late for his first deployment, even if it is a non-combat situation, won't look good on his record, and the Federation sure as hell keeps track of that. Hanging out with Hunk in the mobile suit hangar in the dead of night proved to be an awful idea, but the cookies afterward were worth it. Then again, this isn't a serious affair; they are more or less flying over a city as a show of power to their allies on this colony. Lance was a fool to even think for a second he'd only get a slap on the wrist judging by the way Colonel Iverson glared at him with his one good eye. It was like a Zaku staring down a powerless GM caught with it's rifle jammed and beam saber broken. 

Making his way through the tight corridor's wasn't easy, but getting to mech would probably be much harder. Lance scrambled to reach his assigned mobile suit before being halted by the colonel, not even halving the distance between himself and freedom in his magnificent mechanical work of art.   

"Lieutenant Mcclain, a word." Well shit, this won't end well. At this point he'd have rather been in Jaburo when it was invaded.

This can't be good. Lance all but crumbles under Iverson's gaze as he saunters over in an attempt to not seem suspicious. He suspects it works considering Iverson doesn't so much as squint at him anymore than he already was. 

"You won't be piloting your ReZEL for this, McClain." Iverson's focus shifts to somewhere in the hangar behind Lance. To what, Lance wouldn't dare ask. The young fresh-out-of-training pilot was dumbfounded. He couldn't even manage to speak since his mouth was currently at odds with itself. 

"At ease, son. Your skills as a pilot exceed every one of your fellow cadets. Hell, you're the best pilot out of the Academy since Shirogane. If only you shared his mannerisms." Iverson clears his throat before proceeding. Probably didn't mean to say that last bit. "You've been selected to pilot a prototype. The RX-161 Byarlant II. It's an improvement over it's predecessors in every way, but it still needs a few... er, kinks ironed out. So you'll be testing it's flight capabilities in an artificial atmosphere. Understood?" A quick salute. Unusually tame and normal coming from Lance. "Good." 

"You won't regret your decision, cap- colonel!"

Watching the colonel walk away, Lance turns on his heels and celebrates, jumping in place and whooping just a bit too loud for a particular short-statured communications officer that just so happened to be in the mobile suit hangar at this time.

"You gonna stand there and jump around like an idiot all day or are you gonna go get in a mobile suit?" She says, yanking Lance from his bliss. 

"Jeez, Pidge! You scared me! You couldn't, I dunno, announce your presence or something?"

"There are a lot of people here Lance. How could I have possibly scared you?"

"You know what, don't worry about it, you little gremlin." He begins his mad dash towards the prototype, not waiting to hear her undoubtedly smart-ass retort. The path to the Byarlant wasn't as easy as he'd like, having only tripped on three cables (a record) before reaching the platform to board the mobile suit, but he got there in no time at all. The only thing he'd needed for the task was a different helmet that somewhat resembled the suits own visor.

The Byarlant itself stood at least a head taller than the other mobilel suits in the hangar, and was by far the widest. Lance would wager a bet that it's width was almost equal to its height. The long legs nearly mirrored his own. Overall, the machine appears to be just as gangly as he does. What really piqued his interest were the amount of thrusters. There seemed to be thrusters _everywhere_. Needless to say, Lance is amazed by the sight that awaits him in the cockpit, even though it was largely the same as the ReZEL's own cockpit with a few minor differences, but that didn't matter. Really he was just happy that his hard work had been noticed instead of his constant flirting and overall goofy demeanor.

Launching the damn thing wasn't nearly as exciting. He learned that the hard way. The thrusters needed to be dialed back by a factor of ten to even make it bearable. As it stands, though, the launch is extremely hard on the pilot. He'll take note of that for future reference. That is, only if he's allowed to pilot it again.

"Mcclain? You alright?" a voice chimed in over his communications system. He nods in response, full aware that the mobile suits boast full on video for communication.

"Right as rain, cap."

"Good. Form up on me. We're entering the colony on the east wing."

"Gotcha, cap'n." With that, Lance forms up with the rest of the group, flying through the void of space in a casual formation. They needn't worry, after all, since there had been no inkling of conflict for quite some time. Once inside the colony, he can't help but gape at what he sees, his eyes lingering on mundane buildings a little too long, as well as the 'sky'. The atmosphere of the colony was almost on a one to one scale with Earth itself, minus any turbulence. Despite that fact, Lance nearly collides with another mobile suit in his stupor. The crowds gathered below are clearly entertained by this this mid-flight. Quick to rectify his little mishap, Lance decides to showboat for his audience. While he isn't sure that makes up for it, the attention he's gathered more than makes up for it. Nothing could prevent him from basking in the spotlight.

The red flashing from the corner of his eye is what snaps him back to reality. Wait, flashing red light? Lance focuses his attention on the offending warning, not fully capable of processing what was happening at the moment. "Attack...? That can't be right, nothing's going on."

A sudden wave of fear and anger washes over him in his confusion. Who would attack a defenseless colony like this? The two emotions are easily distinguished from his own rapidly waning glee, with flashes of Hunk and Pidge appearing in his mind accompanied by faint screams of horror before suddenly stopping altogether. The sizable explosion in the distance leaves a sinking feeling in his gut. 

The other pilots seemed to be just as confused as Lance was. Not a single one of them seemed to react as they scanned the surrounding area searching for the culprits behind the attack. Their captain's orders went ignored as they split up into small squads. Lance, along with two other's decide to investigate where the explosion had come come from. His attention, however, is on the odd light just beyond the massive plume of smoke.

"What the h- watch out!" Lance's warning was too late. The ReZEL ahead of him had been struck with a beam that originated from somewhere ahead him, Lance only seeing the burst of light as it was fired. The ensuing situation was nothing short of chaos. Comrades being shot down left and right, enemy mobile suits emerging from what seems like nowhere, and the screams of civilians above and below. The whole thing was a set up, and he needed to return to the ship immediately. 

A mono-eyed suit obstructed his path immediately and he learned quickly that his mobile suit wasn't armed with any weaponry. In a play of desperation, Lance fired his four vulcan cannons, managing to do very little to no damage at all. They did, however, prove to be a viable distraction. One long enough to discover that he  _was_  armed with beam sabers. Quite literally since they were housed in the wrists segment. 

"Woah! Now that's awesome!" Lance exclaims, quickly silencing himself. This wasn't the appropriate time, after all. The enemy mobile suit, no longer dazed, attempts to strike him down while he fiddled with his beam sabers. The sucker punch fails before it even has a chance to succeed since Lance seemed to be aware of the pilot's violent intentions before he'd even moved. Lance, not too keen on killing anyone just yet, elected to disable his opponent, severing the mobile suit's arms and head unit before flying out of the now war-torn colony.

Once in open space, he picks up a call from Pidge. "Lance! You're alive! Well, I knew you were alive, but... that's beside the point. Where are you now?" she asks frantically. She appears to be on the move, but Lance can't quite determine where she is.

"Where am I?! Where are you!?"

"I asked first, you ass."

Lance sighs. "I'm just outside of the east wing. It's pretty bad in there. We've gotta help the people evacuate!"

An explosion on Pidge's end alerts him to her current situation. That can't be good. Especially since an explosion usually means bad. Just how large of an attack was this? Who is behind it? The Zeon have been dealt with for good and the Federation doesn't exactly have any enemies at the time being.

"What was that?" His voice is dripping with concern and most definitely laced with a hint fear.

"That was one of the reactors. The mobile suit hangars are all damaged, it'll be nearly impossible to leave and the escape pods have all been taken." Pidge sounded more shaken up than he'd ever heard her since he'd met her back in U.C 0095. If Pidge was this bad, he couldn't imagine sweet ol' Hunk. 

"Wait, where's Hunk? He was in one of the hangars when we left! I saw him workin' on some suit I'd never seen before."

"Hunk already made it out. He's in some decommissioned mobile suit. Looks like a Jegan and a Jesta got mashed together. You should meet up with him. Sending his coordinates now."

The coordinates were received near instantly. "Got 'em. So what are you gonna do?" Surely she had some plan of escape. There's no way someone as smart as Pidge wouldn't have a plan of escape. Right? Her face says otherwise.

"Oh no. I'm coming to get you."

"Don't. I've got an idea." A bad idea that is, but it's all she's got.

"We're a team. The three amigos! I'm not leaving you behind! Out of the question Pidgerino," Lance demands, hoping she agrees. He isn't sure how he'll get her out but he'll try his best.

"No time for that, Lance. Just trust me on this. All I've got to do is get this reactor operational and I'm good to go."

Lance's raised brow is enough to inform Pidge that she needs to elaborate. She doesn't. Instead, she cuts Lance's feed. Flustered, he seeks out Hunk who is busy evading enemy fire from seemingly every direction. Whatever he's piloting probably shouldn't have been decommissioned if even Hunk could pilot it so well. Especially without vomiting all over the cockpit. However, he could only go so far himself. Some Lance-styled intervention is in need.

In classic Lance fashion, he flies, rather dramatically, directly into combat alongside Hunk having forgotten he was only armed with two beam sabers and vulcan cannons. His folly will be his downfall one of these days. That is, when his friends aren't around to bail him out of trouble, as is the case since Hunk made sure to keep the attention on himself. 

"Thanks big guy, I owe you one!"

Hunk grunts several times before bothering to respond as several explosions are set off behind him. "You owe me several, bud. We've got to go.  Where's Pidge?" 

"She's still on the Medusa. Before you say anything, she's got an idea and you know how she is when she has an idea."

"Lance, behind you!"  Lance's piloting ability allows him to mostly evade the shot from the rail-gun, the round making direct impact with the left arm of his mobile suit. If he wasn't useless before, he sure as hell is now. Another shot almost puts him down for count for him to only be saved by the deflection of another mobile suit. The machine in question looked like Frankenstein got ahold of of spare parts and slapped them together.

Lance nearly assaults his savior before Pidge shows up in his view once again. "You're welcome."

"You made it it out! In... _whatever_ that is. Jeez that looks awful." Lance's distaste in the mix and match mobile suit was more than apparent, but less than necessary. Though in his defense, it is quite ugly, but survivability was placed ahead of aesthetic for Pidge. 

"Okay, gangs all here. Sort of," says an increasingly worried Hunk. "I don't want to be that guy but I think we should strategically retreat."

"We couldn't even if we wanted to considering Lance is the only one of us equipped for prolonged travel in a vacuum. So we either overcome overwhelming odds or we die."

"Never tell me the odds."

Both Pidge and Hunk's groans were worth the ill-timed humor. "Now's not the time for jokes Lance."

"Yeah,  Pidge is right. Dying isn't exactly something I want to experience right now buddy, and jokes won't revive us after we bite the dust." 

The sudden appearance of an unknown ship halts their conversation as it targets all of the mobile suits attacking the trio. Those that weren't destroyed ignore the trio as focus their firepower on the newest, and only, threat. Lance, as confused as always, wants answers. "Just who is behind this?! And who is _that_ now, and why didn't they take us down too? They can't be reinforcements, I don't recognize the ship."

Hunk, being the reasonable angel he is, offers a valid explanation. "They aren't one of ours, but that's fine with me if they aren't gonna kill us." Both Lance and Pidge nod their heads, wordlessly agreeing with Hunk.

The emergence of what appeared to be a gundam from the mystery ship really shut them up. It was followed by yet another, red gundam. Whoever these people are, they aren't to be trifled with. 

"Okay. So these guys show up out of nowhere. Start fighting with mobile suits from some ragtag faction. And they have gundams. _Gundams._ Could today get any weirder?" Just as he spoke, a transmission relayed from the ship made it's way into their system. "Okay, it just got weirder."

"Attention remaining personnel of the Earth Federation. If you seek refuge from the ongoing battle you may board the Castle of Lions."  The voice that played through the transmission was nothing short of elegant. Given that they were the only one's left of the Federation's forces still in the vicinity, they quickly decided to take the mystery woman up on her offer.

Entering the ship in the midst of battle proved to be more difficult than either of them had thought. Lance remembers the woman mentioning that there were five hangars, but they were all either closed off are hidden far too well. Deciding he'd had enough of this, Lance contacts the ship. "So you said there were five hangars and all but... where are they? Like, seriously, I don't see a single opening. I can't fend off many more rogue mobile suits at this rate."  He receives his answer the second he finishes.

"The main hangar is open at the front of the ship. Do hurry, we do not want to risk being boarded." And hurry they did since none of them are particularly well suited for combat at the moment. Someone's going to have some explaining to do.

**Author's Note:**

> I should probably stop making these before I finish any of the others, even if I am abandoning one of them. This just seemed better suited as an au to me considering it's still sci-fi with space magic.


End file.
